Re: Why a sugar tax would be sweet for Canadians and their health, Oct. 23.

I fully agree with Jeremiah Wasserlauf and Adam Kassam that a tax on sugary drinks is long overdue. It would have the benefit of improving public health, saving health care dollars and increasing government revenue. Only the leaders of the soft-drink corporations, who profit from the marketing of ill health, would be adversely affected by the tax.

A tax on sugary drinks is only the beginning of a wise public health policy. It should be followed by taxes on all items containing refined sugar and refined flour.

The decision of the Ontario government to improve access to hospital beds should be gratefully acknowledged. Emergency departments are crowded on a daily basis but certainly an over-taxed system is put to a severe test during the winter.

The issue is not the number of patients who come to the ER but rather crowding in the hospital. An admitted patient for prolonged periods for transfer to the ward completely ties up the emergency treatment area and leads to backlogged waiting rooms and ambulances unable to offload. It rarely occurs when hospitals function at 85 per cent bed occupancy but is a given when this approaches 95 per cent, common in Ontario hospitals.

Ontario has one of the lowest rates of bed availability in the entire Western world at 2.3 hospital beds per 1,000 population. Compounding the problem is that approximately 15 per cent of our total allotment of funded beds is occupied by patients who would be better served at home, in convalescent care or in a nursing home.

There is lots of blame to go around for our current mess and much more needs to be done, but in the meantime, Dr. Eric Hoskins’ announcement is welcome news.

U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft, in her first Canadian print interview, stated, “The golden rule is we want Canadians to be as successful as Americans.”

I doubt Canadians want to be “as successful as Americans.” In February, Scott Gilmore, writing in MacLean’s magazine, provided some statistics that show Canadians are already more successful than Americans. We live 2.5 years longer than Americans. Americans are six times more likely to be incarcerated. The World Economic Forum ranks Canadians as the sixth happiest people in the world. Americans are 13th.

Fifty-nine per cent of Canadians have college degrees versus 46 per cent in the U.S. Home ownership rates are five per cent higher in Canada than in the U.S. Canadians are twice as likely as Americans to move from the poorest quintile of the population to the wealthiest. And perhaps most telling for the citizens of the “Land of the Free,” the Cato Institute’s Human Freedom Index considers Canadians to be the sixth freest people in the world. Americans are way behind, in 23rd place.

So Ambassador Craft, I suggest to you revisit your Golden Rule. Instead, during your appointment as Ambassador to Canada, you should try to help your citizens be as successful as Canadians. As helpful Canadians, we would be happy to show you how.

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